Beacon
by AddisonRules
Summary: Because the winter finale induced pain, there is this story. Major spoilers if you are not caught up on AoS, so be warned and turn away if you want to stay unspoiled. Basically, this is a moment to remember.


Still recovering from the Winter Finale so there's this. Don't own anything, because if I did they'd all be safe and happy and alive!

* * *

><p>The Playground is as quiet as he's ever heard it, and it makes the weight on Phil Coulson's shoulders sink deeper, pushing an ache into his spine. His whole body hurts, the beating he took from Cal and the second from Mack having done real damage, but he's moving and alive, and that's…<p>

His heart burns in his chest as his mind fills in "that's better than some."

On the flight home, after they somehow got the rest of their team out of the underground city and above ground and back onto the Bus, Skye's words tumbled out, repeated over and over again to a devastated audience.

"He tried to save me and it killed him. Tripp is dead. He tried to save me and it killed him. Tripp is dead."

May got them in the air and then sent Bobbi to the controls because they were still on high alert for Hydra and real eyes were better than the autopilot. Hunter went with his ex, their hands clasped, Mack safely under Fitz's watch and Simmons' care.

May sat down beside Skye and fought the tension in the younger agent's body until finally the rigid posture gave way and she slumped against her S.O., tears raging out of her body.

Her verbal mantra was unchanged, only choked off in places by the sobs that stole clarity away.

"He tried to save me and it killed him. Tripp is dead. He tried to save me and it killed him. Tripp is dead."

Once they landed, Phil walked with Mack to medical, where Simmons insisted they both needed a full check-up and monitoring, and the rest of the team scattered to check security and begin the hunt for both Raina and Ward anew.

Coulson had watched with a sting in his eyes as Melinda led Skye away from everyone else, taking her toward their rooms, a steady arm keeping her charge upright.

It's hours before he makes it down the hallway. When he does, he finds Skye's door propped open slightly. Fitz and Simmons are there, both sitting on the floor, keeping watch over her. Mack is in medical still, Bobbi and Hunter bookending him and keeping him calm, reassuring him he did no real damage to the team while he was under the Temple's control.

He finds May where he expects to… in Tripp's room. She's already begun packing up his things, though it's been done with precision and reverence, each tiny memento wrapped and taped for the journey to D.C. where his cousin Sharon Carter will decide what needs to go where and to whom.

"Maria doesn't think it's safe for either of us to fly into D.C. But she's in touch with Steve. He's coming in, and they'll tell Peggy and Sharon together."

Coulson sees how much she wants to rage at the situation… Melinda May's quiet, unpublicized closeness to Peggy Carter is something only their oldest friends know of, and it's why she agreed to train Sharon before Bahrain pulled May out of the field. She hadn't known Tripp before he joined their team except for stories from Peggy's office with early morning tea, but his excellence as an operative and his loyalty as a friend had impressed her from his earliest days onboard the Bus.

Not being the one to tell the Carter women about the death of the man they love will break something in Melinda. He hates it, wishes he could say Maria was wrong and let her take a quinjet and fly off to Washington this moment. But Maria is right and Meilnda knows it, too, which is why she's doing the only thing she can for Tripp's biological family as his adopted one sits shell-shocked around the base.

Melinda turns and sits on the bed, a framed photo from Sharon's academy graduation in her hand. Tripp always looked young, but the image of him smiling brightly, arms around his cousin, Peggy beaming at her legacy… it makes it impossible to accept that such a bright spirit has been taken away from them.

"She needs you," he says as he sits down beside Melinda, knowing she understands who he means without further explanation.

"I know."

"He said something to her… about after she changed, about how people would be afraid of her and no one would understand. It all happened too quickly for me to tell her Cal was wrong."

Melinda nods and sets the photo down in the box she's half packed.

"I trusted him."

It's the highest compliment that legendary Agent May could pay to anyone, and she did, truly. Phil knows it because Melinda giving up the controls of her plane to someone when she's perfectly capable of flying is a big deal. But she came to rely on Tripp, knew that if they were in trouble and she was needed elsewhere, he would be steady in the cockpit, doing everything he could to keep them safe.

"It was trust well placed. Simmons said he didn't even hesitate once he knew we were down there… just raced off to pull the detonators."

They still aren't sure what happened in detail because Skye isn't. She remembers thinking she was going to die as the dark, knotted shell crept around her body. She knows she looked to Tripp, pleading for help. When she broke free, the obelisk and crystals were shattered all around them, and she saw Raina emerging from a similar cocoon, and when she first looked at Tripp she expected the same, but then…

Then his body disintegrated right in front of her.

All they can imagine is that Tripp, seeing Skye's desperation, and knowing the obelisk could and had killed everyone who made contact with it, could only think to try to destroy the cursed thing. Somehow in doing so, the obelisk killed him.

"Peggy probably won't even understand," Melinda says, voice laced with exhaustion and anger and loss. "Maybe that's for the best. The last time I saw her, she kept asking for Gabe like he hadn't been gone for nearly a decade."

Phil nods. He knows words don't mean much right now, but he was one thing to offer, one truth that he feels certain of.

"Tripp did his grandparents proud."

Melinda's head drops, and Phil moves immediately, weaving his arms around her as everything she's held in check for the sake of Skye and the others finally forces its way to the surface.

Tripp and May always got along because he was so much like her. Phil saw it more and more as time went on. Tripp thought of himself last, his team first, and his mission as the only thing he needed to be focused on. It hadn't even occurred to him not to try to save them all single-handedly, nor did Phil imagine he'd hesitated an instant when presented with the slightest chance to defend Skye from the obelisk.

But even more, Tripp was light… he was a waiting smile even in the worst of moments, a glimmer of hope when they seemed to be drowning. No one had needed that more than the woman who spent her life ready to sacrifice it for their team.

Phil needs to work harder at that, helping her stay in the light. When she started to blame herself for Skye being taken by Ward, Phil had stepped up and countered her arguments with fact. She saved their plane, their team, and Skye was capable of keeping herself alive until they could get her back. Melinda had seen to that. It served as a wake-up call to him that when she couldn't let herself off the hook, he needed to be better about reminding her that every loss was not brought about by some failing or fault in her.

There's not much he can do now but just let her grieve here in his arms, in private, where they sit surrounded by memories of a life cut too short by a power they still don't understand. But Phil can do that. He can hold Melinda and let her cry because with him is the only place she'll let the tears fall.

And later, he can be the support at her back when she has to be the one to help Skye pick up the pieces. Melinda's the only one who can do it, who can honestly say she's followed in near similar footsteps. She's the only one who's walked into a room one thing and walked out another. And Melinda will do it, bare her scars and her pain to help Skye move on, but it will cost her. Phil can be there to help her heal.

Tripp's smile dances through his mind, and Phil imagines that the younger agent would glance at them now, his easy laugh ringing out as if to say, "see, it'll all be okay."

It doesn't feel like anything will ever be okay again. But that's not the point. Phil knows the only way to honor the friend they've lost is to make certain that his death always matters.

So they'll take care of each other, and they'll find a way to stop the obelisk from making another family feel as broken as their own.

But first, they'll stop to mourn the loss of the light they were graced with for too brief a time, and remember how dearly they were loved by Antoine Triplett.


End file.
